Shine Global Network

This will be my family’s 7th year of enjoying one of our favorite bookish Christmas traditions: the Icelandic Christmas Book Flood, or Jólabókaflóðið (“Jolabokaflod”). We have no Icelandic heritage, just a shared love of books (and chocolate!). As I wrote in 2018, this is a lovely, simple tradition that my family is able to keep in the midst of the hustle and bustle this time of year: I give my children each a book along with some chocolate on Christmas Eve. They sleep under the tree and are allowed to stay up as late as they want with their new books and treats. No one has to brush their teeth.…

Editor’s Note: Is reading aloud beside the Christmas tree one of your family’s holiday traditions? If so, you’ll want to copy & paste this list of excellent Christmas-themed books from a lady who would know. Christmas Joy! Originally published on the Tumblon website December 11, 2009 under the title “Christmas Stories” I am a northerner. I love Christmas, snow, window candles, bells, Christmas carols, a fire in the fireplace and good conversation with people sitting around our table. Just after Thanksgiving I will put out my collection of children’s Christmas books and scatter them around the house, hoping to entice others to re-read some of these wonderful stories. I’ve been…

In a debut novel reminiscent of Maud Hart Lovelace and Laura Ingalls Wilder, a young girl discovers new friends, family, and hope. *The Star that Always Stays by Anna Rose Johnson. Holiday House, 2022. 224 pages. Reading Level: Teens, Ages 12-15 Recommended For: Ages 12 and up Living on Beaver Island wasn’t always easy for Norvia or her family. A flashback to 1910 and later memories recall that life was often laced with worry. But it was also full of stories and wonder and the beauty of nature. Norvia misses that life, living in Boyne City, Michigan. She misses her grandfather and his stories. But it is 1915. Her grandfather is…

Though not for every reader, The Rat Queen effectively exposes the harm caused to individual souls by hiding or excusing their own sins. The Rat Queen by Pete Hautman. Candlewick, 2022, 390 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: ages 11-18 The Sin eater Annike (Annie) Klimas has been homeschooled ever since third grade, when she got into an argument with her teacher about her home country. Mr. Jackson insisted Litvania was not an actual country, but Annie knew it was. Both her parents emigrated from there! After a visit to the principal’s office her father withdrew her from the public school: “We have plenty of books at…

A Rover’s Story employs an unusual protagonist to celebrate science, space exploration, and humanity. A Rover’s Story by Jasmine Warga. Balzer+Bray, 2022, 294 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 8-10 Recommended for: ages 8-15 The Mission “I awake to knowledge. My circuits fire. The room cheers. A loud sound, but it does not startle me.” In some ways the “birth” of a robot is like the birth of a child in a hospital: Bright lights, sudden loud voices, a crowd of sensations that will later be sorted into knowledge. Otherwise, the Mars Rover (soon to be named Resilience, or Res) is a collection of parts and circuitry made for a…

Home for Christmas is a lovely, literary collection of stories, old and new, that highlight the “spirit” of Christmas. Home for Christmas: Stories for Young and Old, edited by Miriam LeBlanc and illustrated by David Klein. Plough Publishing House, 2021. 339 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: Ages 10 and up An unknown carpenter built a miraculous staircase for a chapel in the Southwest. A curmudgeonly cribmaker had a Scrooge-like vision one night and changed his ways. Three young men helped a town see the true meaning of the three kings’ gifts. A young man opened his home to the poor and destitute. This lovely anthology includes…